We study the effect of credit default swaps (CDSs) on the bond market. Using a comprehensive sample of U.S. corporate bonds, we document that the presence of CDSs significantly increases bond liquidity and reduces yield spreads for investment grade bonds. We show that CDSs influence the bond market by lowering the impact of fire sales of institutional bondholders and facilitating inventory management for bond dealers who absorb fire sale shocks. However, the liquidity provision role of CDSs gets weakened after the CDS Big Bang in 2009, potentially because of the requirement of large upfront payments.

Anthropologists have demonstrated that having information about new settlements is crucial for drawing migrants. Pilgrimage to ritual landscapes and their shrines allows people, including Maya societies, to explore places where they can settle. They then establish or augment settlements around the landscape shrines, which explains the locations and growth of some centers. Migrants continue to make pilgrimages to shrines, such as sacred mountains, near their receiving settlements to enhance community cohesion through ritual contact with spiritual forces. In this article, I show that pilgrimage is an important element in the establishment of select migrant settlements and their community identity. I focus on Maya and Mesoamerican cultures, particularly at Mensabak in Chiapas, Mexico, and on supporting archaeological, historical, and ethnographic information. I conclude that Maya perceptions of movement, connectivity, and transformation in their world are linked to pilgrimage, migration, and community formation. Importantly, pilgrimage provides a religious variable, in addition to better-known economic, political, or demographic factors, to consider in migration.

The uncountability of $\mathbb {R}$ is one of its most basic properties, known far outside of mathematics. Cantor’s 1874 proof of the uncountability of $\mathbb {R}$ even appears in the very first paper on set theory, i.e., a historical milestone. In this paper, we study the uncountability of ${\mathbb R}$ in Kohlenbach’s higher-order Reverse Mathematics (RM for short), in the guise of the following principle:

$$\begin{align*}\mathit{for \ a \ countable \ set } \ A\subset \mathbb{R}, \mathit{\ there \ exists } \ y\in \mathbb{R}\setminus A. \end{align*}$$

An important conceptual observation is that the usual definition of countable set—based on injections or bijections to ${\mathbb N}$—does not seem suitable for the RM-study of mainstream mathematics; we also propose a suitable (equivalent over strong systems) alternative definition of countable set, namely union over ${\mathbb N}$ of finite sets; the latter is known from the literature and closer to how countable sets occur ‘in the wild’. We identify a considerable number of theorems that are equivalent to the centred theorem based on our alternative definition. Perhaps surprisingly, our equivalent theorems involve most basic properties of the Riemann integral, regulated or bounded variation functions, Blumberg’s theorem, and Volterra’s early work circa 1881. Our equivalences are also robust, promoting the uncountability of ${\mathbb R}$ to the status of ‘big’ system in RM.

Companies from emerging economies have started internationalizing their production operations; they are following the same path as American, European and East Asian corporations before them, setting up factories in third countries to serve their export markets from closer locations and produce more efficiently. Thus, it is no longer only developed countries’ multinationals which are moving their operations to developing countries, but emerging market companies that are increasingly engaging in production abroad. This is having beneficial effects in countries where these companies invest and might help them start their own industrialization process. This has attracted the ire of developed countries, which are now targeting these downstream production plants abroad by using the so-called anti-circumvention instrument, resulting in trade defence duties imposed on the parent companies being extended to their foreign subsidiaries. This application of the anti-circumvention instrument departs from its historic rationale and might hinder the development of countries in need of foreign investment. Therefore, affected governments should consider taking international legal action to bring developed countries to the negotiating table to put a halt to this abuse of the anti-circumvention instrument.

The diffusive exchange of dissolved material between fluid flowing in a fracture and the enclosing wallrocks (rock matrix diffusion) has been proposed as a mechanism by which radionuclides derived from a radioactive waste repository may be removed from groundwater and incorporated into the geosphere. To test the effectiveness of diffusive exchange in igneous and metamorphic rocks, we have carried out an investigation of veins formed at low temperatures (<100°C), comparing the oxygen isotopic composition of vein calcite with that of secondary calcite in the wallrocks. Two examples of veins from the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, Cumbria, and one from the Mountsorrel Granodiorite, Leicestershire, UK, have remarkably similar vein calcite compositions, ca. +20‰(SMOW) or greater, substantially heavier than the probable compositions of the host rocks, and these vein calcite compositions are inferred to reflect the infiltrating fluid and the temperature of vein formation. Calcites from the wallrocks are similar to those in veins, with little evidence for exchange with the wallrocks. The results support existing models for this type of vein which suggest low-temperature growth from formation brines originally linked to Permian or Triassic evaporites. The results are consistent with flow through fractures being attenuated through a damage zone adjacent to the fracture and provide no evidence of diffusional exchange with pore waters from wallrocks.

An intra-band pattern-corrected decoupling vertical conducting wall is realized by dielectric substrate with conductor cladding on both side wall between two tightly spaced H-plane microstrip patches with λ0/20 edge-to-edge spacing. The wall is grounded and two symmetrical slots are etched on the vertical substrate. The measured results agree with the simulations, showing that the slotted vertical wall reduces the mutual coupling within the bandwidth to −30 dB and corrects the radiation beam tilt to be within −4.5° to 3° from the broadside direction. A gain reduction of 0.6 dB is observed compared to the gain without the slotted decoupling wall.

Vanadium is the dominant trace element and chromophore in tanzanite, the most valued gemmological variety of zoisite. The structure of zoisite–tanzanite was obtained by structural refinement to assess the vanadium location in the zoisite structure. However, the small V content in tanzanite evidenced by electron microprobe and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry limits the exact determination of the V position in the zoisite structure. Structural refinement revealed that the average bond length of the less distorted M1,2O6 octahedron is below 1.90 Å, and M3O6 has slightly longer bonds with an average of ca. 1.96 Å. The M1,2 site is slightly overbonded with a bond-valence sum (BVS) of 3.03 vu, whereas M3 is slightly underbonded (BVS = 2.78 vu). Optical absorption spectra revealed that most V is trivalent, but a small portion is probably in a four-valent state. Therefore, crystal field Superposition Model and Bond-Valence Model calculations were applied based on several necessary assumptions: (1) V occupies octahedral sites; and (2) it can occur in two oxidation states, V3+ or V4+. Crystal field Superposition Model calculations from the optical spectra indicated that V3+ prefers occupying the M1,2 site; the preference of V4+ from the present data was impossible to determine. Bond-Valence Model calculations revealed no unambiguous preference for V3+, although simple bond-length calculation suggests the preference of the M3 site. However, it is quite straightforward that the M1,2 site is better suitable for V4+. If the possible octahedral distortion is considered, the M1,2O6 octahedron is subject to a smaller change in distortion if occupied by V3+ than the M3O6 octahedron. Consequently, considering the results of both the crystal field Superposition Model and Bond-Valence Model calculations, we assume that both V3+ and V4+ prefer the M1,2 site.

Toyotamaphimeia is an extinct crocodylian lineage whose name is derived from a mythological Japanese princess. Here, we re-examine the type specimens of a long-forgotten species: Tomistoma taiwanicus from the Pleistocene of Tainan (Taiwan) and revise its taxonomic status to Toyotamaphimeia taiwanicus n. comb., leading to the first recognized species of Toyotamaphimeia outside Japan. Our phylogenetic analyses also support this taxonomic assignment and, more interestingly, further suggest an East Asian lineage. In addition, Toyotamaphimeia taiwanicus n. comb. represents a tropical species, resolving a long-standing puzzle of why Toyotamaphimeia only inhabited a much higher latitudinal area (Japan). Given the large body size of Toyotamaphimeia taiwanicus n. comb. (~7 m) and the fact that it is geologically older than Toyotamaphimeia machikanensis from Japan, we propose a novel evolutionary scenario: the genus Toyotamaphimeia originated in Taiwan and evolved to a large body size with gigantothermic physiology, which resulted in migration out of Taiwan and dispersal farther north to Japan. Our taxonomic identification shows the presence of an extinct endemic crocodylian species from the Pleistocene of Taiwan with large-scale paleogeographic implications. This study, with our recent progress in vertebrate paleontology in Taiwan, should provoke more in-depth paleontological research on the Pleistocene extinction.

This article explores the meaning of solidarity in European Union (EU) law in the context of the energy sector and the ongoing energy crisis. Energy provides a powerful and topical sectoral example of the fundamental role and diverse functions of solidarity in EU law. In its OPAL ruling in 2021, the Court of Justice of the EU established that energy solidarity constitutes a legally binding principle of EU energy law that should inform EU institutions and the Member States in their energy decisions. This article adds to legal scholarship on solidarity in three ways. First, it further develops the understanding of the ambiguous solidarity concept in EU law through the lens of the energy sector. Secondly, it contributes to the emerging body of energy law scholarship that seeks to advance the discipline of energy law by focusing on its doctrine rather than on its substantive developments. Finally, it provides a timely and novel analysis of the EU's recent emergency responses to address the acute energy crisis from the point of view of solidarity.

Right ventricular failure after placement of left ventricular assist device in paediatric heart failure is associated with increased mortality. We report successful use of intravenous prostacyclin for right ventricular support and pulmonary hypertension after initiation of left ventricular assist device support. This suggests that intravenous prostacyclins may be an important therapy in right ventricular failure following ventricular assist device implantation.

We describe a rare case of acute pulmonary artery thromboembolism in a 17-year-old male patient who presented to our emergency department following a syncopal episode. A chest radiograph showed a convex pulmonic cone and an increased cardiothoracic index, and two-dimensional echocardiogram suggested near-occlusion of both pulmonary arterial branches. Multi-slice pulmonary angio-tomography revealed massive thrombosis of the pulmonary artery. He was treated with systemic anticoagulation and subsequently required surgical thrombectomy, with favourable early outcome. Although the cause of the thromboembolism remains unproven, we discuss possible etiologies.

This article considers three temporary and reversible penal shaming acts in nineteenth-century Iran: the shaving or cutting of hair, irrespective of gender; the shaving or cutting of men's facial hair; and the forcible removal of headgear or the coerced wearing of silly headgear. Drawing on anthropological, historical, and sociological studies of hair, this study argues that hair and hat punishments embodied elements of ritual, sexuality, social control, and marginalization. In order to understand the meaning of these penal acts, the article looks at general taboos around hair and head exposure alongside licit and voluntary forms of cutting or shaving hair. Illicit sex, heresy, and alcohol consumption were recurring moral crimes most often associated with such forms of humiliating punishment. Since restoration of honor was not the sole prerogative of the government, these punishments were often carried out by those acting on behalf of a religious authority or individually and collectively by ordinary subjects outraged by a moral violation.